Under the bells of St Mary’s

Our old picture this week takes in the bottom section of Durban’s Lillian Ngoyi (Windermere) Road and includes one of its famed nightspots.

Posted on the Facebook Page Durban Down Memory Lane, it is probably somewhere between 20 and 30 years old.

Little has changed in the intervening years. The flower bed now features marigolds, and a council worker was lovingly tending to them when we took the pictures, and the two trees which were sapplings in the early picture have grown, one substantially more than the other.

Seen in the picture from the left is today the upmarket Argentinian inspired steakhouse called Zai. While Beanbag Bohemia, in the late 1990s and early 2000s was for many the city’s most interesting party spot. It reopened with much aplomb last year and is today a sophisticated dining and jazz spot. It was designed by Baker & Fleming in the Romanesque revival style with a campanile is famed for it’s bells which have been extensively restored. The church has a dedicated team of bell ringers.